CHRIS GELARDI / NY FOCUS
A man in a green prison uniform, his face bleeding and wrists shackled behind his back, slouches on a medical examination table. A uniformed guard shoves an object into his mouth, while another grips his throat, and several more take turns beating him. They hit him all over his body. When he loses consciousness, they lift him by his collar and throw him against a window.
The killing of Robert Brooks at a central New York prison became a media sensation. Body-worn camera footage of the deadly beatdown, released in December, triggered a flurry of coverage, from local headlines to rolling cable news stories, directing national outrage at a state prison system that often evades scrutiny. It caused a particular headache for the state prison commissioner, Daniel Martuscello III…